Save Us
by runwiththenight
Summary: Klaroline adaption of "House, M.D." Caroline is based off of House, the best diagnostician in the country. It's been fifteen years since that day in the woods, so when Klaus shows up asking for her help with his mysteriously sick daughter, Caroline is shocked. Time has passed and everything is different now-how will this affect their relationship?
1. Chapter 1

A strange feeling washed over Caroline as she walked into her office. She couldn't identify it at first but it was oddly familiar. Like a song you hear on the radio that you know you've heard before but you can't quite sing along. Whatever it was, it stirred something inside her heart, something she'd long thought impossible, and she didn't understand why.

Then his scent hit her and it all flooded in. Her heart was racing, her breath caught in her throat. She froze mid step; it was like she'd been instantly transported 15 years back in time, back to that day in the woods, as if nothing had changed since then. The effect he had on her hadn't lost it's power over the years.

Caroline turned around slowly to verify that he was really there. Her whole body went numb when her eyes landed on him, leaning against the wall, arms crossed.

"Klaus," she breathed with disbelief.

"Hello, Caroline," he smirked. She was again overwhelmed with memories of the last time she'd heard those words.

"What...how..?" she struggled to form her question. What could she possibly even say to him? It'd been 15 years since he'd promised her that he was never coming back and in return she'd given him the truth. She told him she was building a life for herself and now that she had, did he think he could just walk into it?

"What are you doing here?" she finally demanded. The smirk slowly faded from Klaus' face.

"I need your help," he answered quietly. That floored her; she'd been expecting a grand gesture or a suggestive comment but the sadness in his eyes took her completely by surprise.

She opened her mouth to speak but soon found she was at a loss for words. Instead, she returned to her previous task of hanging up her purse and slipping into her lab coat. She sat down behind her desk and gestured towards the chair across from her.

"Maybe you should elaborate," she suggested.

Klaus hesitantly lowered into the blue armchair that usually seated Board Directors and patients.

"Well, first I have to ask.. After I left that day, did Tyler tell you..about Hayley?" he asked hesitantly.

How could she have forgotten? The news that had broken her heart into pieces, devastated her beyond belief. That Klaus and Hayley were going to have a baby. She had only figured that that's why he was so willing to leave her behind.

She tried to ignore the pain that was radiating inside her chest. How could that memory still hurt so much after all this time?

"Yes," she answered shakily.

"So you know I have a daughter?" he asked her directly, never taking his eyes off hers.

That shook her a bit. She simply cleared her throat and nodded, allowing him to continue.

"She's a werewolf, obviously, though she hasn't triggered the curse. Her blood has the ability to create hybrids, which I think means she can't become one. Her body rejects vampire blood," he explained.

The scientist in Caroline was instantly intrigued. She'd spent a lot of secret time in labs after hours studying vampire blood and DNA, both in med school and at the hospital. The thought had occurred to her time and time again that hybrid blood would be even more fascinating, but she'd never imagined she'd be able to get her hands on it. Now she might have the chance to see something new altogether, a one of a kind species; but she was getting ahead of herself.

"That's...interesting," she replied hesitantly. She was still waiting to hear why he needed her help.

Klaus took a ragged breath and Caroline saw the earlier sadness return to his eyes.

"She's sick," he whispered. "She's been having horrid hallucinations and she has these heart issues. I've been to cardiologists, I've talked to witches, I've tried injecting her with my blood. Nothing. She's dying,"

Caroline was both shocked and pained to see how tortured Klaus was over his daughter's health. He looked so sad and afraid she couldn't help but hurt for him. This was the man she knew, the one she'd always seen beneath the hard exterior. The man that felt and cared deeply for those around him, even if he had a hard time showing it.

She knew then why he was there, why he needed her help. She couldn't bring herself to make him come right out and say it; she knew this had been hard enough for him.

"Why didn't you come to me first?" she asked as she leaned back in her chair, studying his reaction. His eyes snapped up to meet hers in surprise.

"I didn't know at first. I tried to.. keep my distance, like I promised," he smirked a little, but it didn't meet his eyes. "After I'd exhausted the obvious options, I had people start looking for doctors who were aware of the supernatural. I was soon given the name of the best diagnostician in the country, whom was rumored to be a vampire," he finished, and the smirk had returned genuinely. Caroline blushed when she recognized a hint of pride in his expression.

"You can imagine my surprise. I was under the impression you had to be good at arithmetic to be a doctor," he joked.

Caroline laughed, remembering the way he'd teased her about her math skills. A pang shot through her heart for what seemed like the hundredth time since he'd first arrived.

She looked down and smiled. "Well, maybe you were just wrong about me, and what my strong suits are,"

When she looked back up, she expected to see him smiling, ready to return her banter. But he was staring at her solemnly, the exact way he had always looked at her, as if he were seeing straight into her soul. Her breath caught in her throat.

Klaus was the first to break the heavy silence, "Here, I have her medical file. A history from the doctors we've been to see,"

"Oh, great," Caroline smiled as she reached out to take it. Their fingers brushed in the exchange of the folder, sending chills throughout her body. When her eyes met Klaus' she could tell he was feeling the same effect and she couldn't help but smile.

She leaned back in her chair while she flipped open the file, trying to bite the grin off her face. It faded easily when she took in the medical information.

"This is impossible," she exclaimed in wonder, eyes narrowed as she flipped through the pages, trying to find something that she'd missed.

"Cardiogenic shock, but no-"

"No heart attack, yeah that's what the other doctors said too," Klaus finished for her, his voice resigned.

"No heart anything! No acute myocardial infarction, no Wolff-Parkinson-White disease. This is crazy..," she shook her head as she trailed off and Klaus watched with amused eyes. She was so different and yet so much the same.

"Do you guys still live in New Orleans?" she asked, eyes still narrowed toward the folder.

"Yes. We travel a lot but that is our home. Why?"

"It's still a hot spot for toxins after Katrina.. Travel where?" she insisted, grabbing a pen.

"Uh, recently, New York," he offered.

"What about out of the country?"

"Um, we went to England about 6 months ago,"

"Okay," Caroline nodded as she jotted down some notes. Her brain was whirling with ideas, trying to make sense of the medical mystery. Finally, she broke out of her reverie and looked up at Klaus.

"Where is your daughter?"

"Hope is with Rebekah," he smiled easily again.

"Rebekah, hmm," Caroline grinned and rolled her eyes. "There's a name I haven't heard in awhile," she said and Klaus laughed. "Anyway, bring her in. I'll do whatever it takes to help her," she promised, even though she knew it was a dangerous thing to do.

Klaus sighed in relief. "Thank you, Caroline,"

She smiled and then looked down, trying unsuccessfully to keep the blush from spreading over her cheeks. She knew she shouldn't ask, but she couldn't help herself.

"So, where's Hayley?" she asked hesitantly. She refused to look at him and the smirk she figured was plastered smugly on his face.

"She died," he answered quietly, causing Caroline's head to snap up in surprise. "In childbirth," he explained.

"Oh, I'm so sorry," Caroline sighed and desperately tried to convince herself that the weight lifting off her heart wasn't relief.

"It's alright, love. She was family, especially given her relationship with Elijah, but it's been a long time,"

_Her relationship with Elijah._

_Not relieved, not relieved, _she told herself again. "Oh, Elijah. I assumed you guys were-" was all she managed to utter before he cut her off decidedly.

"No," he said. "No, my heart has only ever had room for one woman in that sense. I'm still waiting for her,"

Caroline's whole body erupted in fireworks and just like that, they were back.

Some things never change.


	2. Chapter 2

"Good morning!" Caroline greeted her team as she entered the outer office. "I have a surprise for you guys!"

They all looked up at her excitedly but their expressions quickly turned suspicious when they saw that all she was holding was medical files. Medical mysteries never excited them as much as they did her.

"Fifteen year old girl, cardiogenic shock with no heart attack," she chimed, refusing to let them dampen her excitement.

The team all rolled their eyes but reached out for their individual folders.

"Fine, if that doesn't intrigue you guys, maybe the first page will," Caroline started as she took a seat at the glass table. "She doesn't have _any _heart problems, save for the whole shock thing. No infarctions, no infections, tox screen is clean, no Wolffe-Parkinson-White syndrome. Nothing,"

That got their attention. They all snapped their heads up to stare at her with wide eyes.

"That's what I thought," she grinned satisfactorly. "I should also mention that the patient is the daughter of an old personal friend. He requested my care specifically. Because of this and the patient's odd combination of symptoms, I suggest we start over. Scrap the medical history and rule everything out ourselves."

"Good idea. I'll go get an echo and a chest X-Ray," Jorgan offered. All three of them double took when Caroline shook her head.

"I'll be overseeing her care personally. I'll do the tests and let you guys know what I find out. Unfortunately, it will all come back negative. When it does, I'm going to suspect that the problem is playing hide and seek,"

"An arrhythmia?" Jorgan stated for her, nodding his head. "It makes sense,"

"Only one way to find out," Caroline smiled.

"You can't induce an arrhythmia in someone with an already weak heart," Valerie contested. Caroline couldn't help but roll her eyes; that girl was always trying to compete with her.

"If she walks out of here and has one on the street rather than in a hospital, she will probably die. You okay with that?"

Valerie simply looked down at the table.

"I'm going to go get consent for the procedure," Caroline informed, already headed for the door.

They stared at her with wide eyes for a moment before Thomas finally spoke with an impish grin, "Must be one hell of an old friend,"

Caroline smiled but didn't respond. He definitely was.

She slowed down as she walked down the hallway. Her heart was thumping in her throat as she mentally prepared herself. _I'm about to meet Klaus' daughter_ she thought incredulously to herself. Her mind was racing with a hundred horrible scenarios yet she had no idea what to expect.

She took a deep breath when she finally reached the glass door to their room and slid it open before she could worry any further. Klaus' eyes snapped up to meet hers as she entered the room and his smile shot the now familiar tightness through her chest as she thought about the last time he'd smiled at her like that.

"Hi," she breathed.

"Hi," he smirked in return. Then he turned towards the girl lying in bed. "Hope, this is Caroline,"

Caroline's first thought when she finally tore her eyes away from Klaus to look at his daughter was that she looked freakishly like Hayley. Except for her eyes.

For fifteen, she was already willowy and beautiful. Her hair was dark and full. It contrasted incredibly with the bright blue orbs she'd inherited from her father. She was thin but Caroline could see the telltale werewolf sinew underneath her creamy skin.

"Hello, Hope," Caroline smiled hesitantly. "You look a lot like your mom,"

"That's what everyone says," Hope smiled sweetly and Caroline breathed a little easier. "It's nice to meet you,"

"It's nice to meet you too!" she exclaimed a little enthusiastically as she headed towards the bed. Hope's smile faded a little, as if just remembering who she was meeting.

"Do you know what's wrong with me?" she asked meekly.

"Not yet," Caroline assured. "We've decided to start over. Get brand new X-rays, heart tests, everything. We want to make sure the other doctors didn't miss anything,"

Hope nodded. "That sounds good,"

"Great," Caroline grinned. She snuck a glance towards Klaus who was watching her with amusement.

"Unfortunately, we don't really expect to find anything. It's highly unlikely that four other doctors missed something so simple. I think that it's an arrhythmia," Caroline began, turning towards Klaus to gauge his reaction. When she found that both he and Hope were lost, she took a deep breath to explain.

"It's when the electrical impulses that coordinate your heartbeats don't work right. It would explain your symptoms," Caroline drew another breath and directed her attention towards Klaus. "To test for it, we'd need to map the electrical pathways of her heart. We'd basically send electricity through each pathway until one fails. That would tell us where the arrhythmia is,"

Klaus' eyes bore into hers for a moment and she did her best to hold his gaze. "It sounds dangerous," he whispered.

Caroline nodded and glanced back at Hope, who gave her a timid smile. "It is," she nodded. "But if she has another cardiac episode, we have the means to help her. If it happens in an uncontrolled environment, it could kill her,"

Klaus breath was ragged and he crossed his arms tightly, as if trying to shield the pain that was to tearing it's way into his chest. Caroline's heart softened watching him become so tortured for his daughter. She wanted to promise him it would be okay, but she couldn't; so she simply waited.

Finally, Klaus sat at the edge of the bed and ran his hand over Hope's dark hair. "Okay," he nodded and reached for the clipboard that Caroline held.

After he'd signed it Caroline found gloves and a needle.

"I'd like to draw some blood, just to run some other tests," she explained. Mostly she was dying to see the properties of the girl's unique blood, but she could also use it to rule out a few other things. She sat down on the edge of Hope's bed and tried not to pay attention to Klaus' eyes that followed her every movement.

"So, Hope do you go to school?" Caroline asked cheerfully as she rubbed the inside of the girl's elbow with an alcohol pad. She assumed she'd become accustomed to needles over the past few weeks but it was still nice to be distracted. It seemingly worked when Hope nodded enthusiastically.

"Yeah, I just started high school,"

"Wow, that's exciting," Caroline grinned. "Do you like it?"

Hope's eyes widened in excitement, reminding Caroline of herself at that age. "I love it, especially cheerleading. Hey, daddy said you were a cheerleader!"

Thankfully Caroline had just been taking the safety lid of the needle when she said that or she would've missed the girl's vein entirely.

"Did he now?" she asked, laughing with wide eyes as she tried to recover. "Well, it's true. I was captain. It was kind of my life back then," she laughed. She snuck an incredulous glance at Klaus and was shocked to find him both grinning and blushing.

She had just finished the blood culture when there was a knock on the door and Valerie walked in.

"Hey, sorry to interrupt. Dr. Howard requested a consult, room 205,"

"That's alright, I'll head over there really fast. Dr. Malloy, this is Klaus Mikaelson and his daughter, Hope. Will you take them to get her chest X-ray? Then wait in the procedure area, I'd like to do the mapping myself,"

Valerie nodded and Caroline turned towards Klaus again. "She's a member on my team, she'll take good care of you guys. I'll be back in a bit," she smiled and Klaus' answering smirk and "okay," was enough to send shivers down her spine.

She heard Valerie say "excuse me a moment" as she was leaving the room but she didn't get away fast enough before Valerie was grabbing her arm after sliding the glass door closed.

"Wait a minute! _That_ is your old "personal" friend?! You have some serious explaining to do!" Valerie exclaimed in an excited whisper.

Caroline's cheeks burned at the thought of Klaus listening from the other side of the not so thick glass. She took a step away and whispered a much lower response.

"I don't know what you mean," she answered as melancholy as possible.

"Oh bullshit," Valerie snorted. "For one, no one who exchanges that much eye sex is just "friends" and you kind of forgot to mention that he's insanely hot!"

Caroline couldn't help the smile that crept across her face. She looked down, blushing.

"You little sleaze, I knew it!" Valerie grinned.

"Shhh!" Caroline begged urgently. "It's not a big deal. It was all a very long time ago,"

"Mhmm," Valerie nodded skeptically. "Apparently you didn't notice how you guys looked at each other. I'd be willing to bet you could go 1,000 years without seeing each other and it wouldn't matter,"

Caroline's heart did backflips but before she could respond Valerie's expression grew more solemn. Making a serious effort to keep her voice down she said, "I couldn't help but notice he's pretty young to have a 15 year old daughter. Is he..?"

"Yes," Caroline answered quickly when her voice trailed off. "I can explain more later but if anyone asks, it's an adoption. That's another reason I don't want anyone else handling the blood work,"

Valerie nodded and then gave her another wicked smile. "Yeah, I'm sure that's just one of _many _reasons,"

Caroline laughed and rolled her eyes as Valerie headed back to the room. She was just turning away when she caught Klaus' eye through the glass. He was grinning hugely at her, his expression smug as ever.

She knew he'd heard everything.


	3. Chapter 3

**I know this is kind of short, I'm sorry! But I'll have a new update soon! Thank you for all the support, reviews are my favorite thing in the universe! **

**Something kinda funny: my story is set in the future so that it makes sense. Unlike Elena in season 6 diagnosing patients during her SOPHOMORE year as a PRE MED student! I was like seriously?! Sophomores are lucky if they've taken an anatomy class, let alone doing rounds at the hospital. lol oh, I hate Julie Plec.**

**ANYWAY- story time now (; ...**

"So when did you decide to be a doctor?" Klaus inquired, raising his eyebrows at her. "It's a bit of a jump from drama major,"

"You may have noticed I'm a little busy here," Caroline replied shrewdly. "You know you're not even supposed to be up there? The observance room is for other doctors,"

"Ah, but you like me sweetheart," he shot back with a smirk. Caroline directed a glare at him as he stood in the small glass room that overlooked the procedure area. Typically, a button had to be pushed to allow communication between the two rooms but their supernatural hearing penetrated the glass effortlessly.

"Oh, come on love, my intentions are pure. I'm simply curious," he promised.

Caroline rolled her eyes but decided to answer him, "It started when I was a freshmen. Elena and I compelled our way into this upper level Biology class so we could spy on our sketchy teacher. Turns out he was into torturing vampires for research,"

Klaus raised his eyebrows and whistled.

"Yeah," Caroline laughed. "It was crazy. Anyway, he asked me a really hard question that I had no idea what the answer to was so he kicked me out of class. He pretty much called me an idiot,"

"So, you decided to prove him wrong," Klaus offered smugly and Caroline shivered; she was a little weirded out by how well he still knew her. She gave him a small smile and nodded before turning back to the procedure.

Her eyes stayed narrowed as she watched the computer while gently guiding the catheter through Hope's heart. Valerie stood across from her, watching the heart and brain waves monitor. So far she'd been silent but Caroline caught the small smirks she gave at the parts of the conversation her human ears could perceive.

"And?" Klaus finally prompted after a moment of silence.

"And what?" Caroline asked distractedly.

"You said that's how it started. I'm assuming there's more to the story,"

Caroline looked down for a moment and swallowed thickly. She kept her eyes on the screen when she answered, "And then my mom got sick,"

She heard his sharp intake of breath but refused to look at him. "Cancer. She wouldn't accept my blood. She said it was-" she drew a shaky breath. "She said it was unnatural,"

"Caroline, I-" but she shook her head before he could finish.

"It's fine. She was ready to go. I gave her a dream," she smiled sadly. "But it fueled my medical drive. I was going to be an oncologist but as I got further into medical school I was more drawn to infectious disease. It gave me a chance to study blood more," she winked and Klaus chuckled while Valerie shook her head.

"Sinoatrial normal," Caroline mumbled, causing Valerie to refocus her attention. She inserted another catheter into the next valve. When she sent the electrical impulse, the machines started beeping erratically.

"Tachycardia," Caroline stated briefly, demanding her voice to stay even and calm. "12.5 milligrams Adenosine, stat. She's crashing. No hallucinations!" she affirmed after glancing at the normal brain waves on the monitor.

"Caroline, what's happening?!" she heard Klaus' panicked voice from behind her but she forced herself to shut him out.

"Get the paddles," she told Valerie, but her assistant was already poised over Hope's chest.

"Clear!" she shouted, and Caroline took a step back as she shocked the small girl's body. Klaus gasp was pure torture and she tried not to imagine how painful it would be to see your daughter's heart be restarted on a cold, surgical table.

Finally, after one endless minute the monitors returned to normal. Caroline allowed herself one beat before grabbing another catheter.

"Entering the upper right atrium," she stated firmly.

"Forbes, she just had a heart attack! You can't go in there again," Valerie protested.

"If I don't, we'll never find anything," Caroline explained without looking up. The monitors beeped out of control again and this time the brain waves jumped across the screen haphazardly.

"That's it, she's hallucinating," Valerie sighed, defeated.

"Freezing the tissue," she responded, trying not to let her smugness show. Everyone always doubted her methods, but they rarely proved to be wrong. When the monitors returned to normal, she finally turned and looked up at Klaus. His face was ashen and his eyes burned with fury; she knew it was his only response to pain.

"She's going to be okay," Caroline smiled. Klaus mouth dropped in shock, allowing the anger to recede. Then his lips stretched into a grin, causing her own heart to flutter. She didn't know how long they stood there, smiling at one another. She was happy. Happy he was back, happy to be around him, happy that she'd been the one to save his daughter.

But a nagging, selfish thought sat in the back of her mind.

Now he didn't have a reason to stay.


End file.
